What makes a
gathering worth
having?
An independent research lab and advisory practice that studies the economics of festivals, forums, and corporate events — and helps the people funding them get more than attendance for their money.
Start a conversation →Est. 2026
Based in Ontario
Work nationally
Every year, billions of dollars move into gatherings — festivals, forums, corporate summits, civic events — the full spectrum of human assembly that governments fund, companies sponsor, and communities build their identity around. Remarkably little rigorous thinking exists about whether any of it is working.
Resolute & Gather grows out of twenty-five years spent designing the gatherings where consequential decisions get made — across four continents, for clients who don't tolerate wasted time. That work taught us exactly what separates a gathering that creates lasting value from one that simply occurs.
We publish research on gathering economics. We help sponsors build event portfolios that earn their place. We help governments and foundations understand what their investment in bringing people together is actually producing — and what better design could produce instead.
The gathering industry is large, growing, and almost entirely unexamined.
We intend to examine it.
Resolute & GatherWhat we offer
Three ways inSponsorship
Worth Audit
For corporate sponsors
An evidence-based review of your event sponsorship portfolio, measured against the strategic objectives it's meant to serve — not impressions, not logo placement, not what everyone else in your sector happens to be doing.
Festival
Impact Brief
For municipalities & DMOs
A clear-eyed assessment of what a festival or event investment is actually producing for a community — and what a better-designed version of it could produce instead.
Gathering
Strategy Session
For organizers & leadership teams
A focused working session that surfaces the real objective behind a gathering, narrows the design choices that matter, and ends with a plan — not a wish list.
From the field
Insights on the business of bringing people together — definitions, data, and what the numbers are actually telling us. Updated periodically as new research emerges.
Estimated annual economic contribution, direct and indirect, including tourism, hospitality, and infrastructure spend generated by major events nationally.
Spanning music, film, food, culture, and heritage — the majority in Ontario and Quebec. Fewer than 200 have dedicated impact measurement programmes.
Post-pandemic, a significant share of national sponsors report dissatisfaction with how their event investments are evaluated — and say ROI frameworks are either absent or inadequate.
What is gathering economics?
The gathering economy is the body of activity — investment, labour, infrastructure, sponsorship, attendance behaviour, and community impact — that flows through intentional human assembly. It is distinct from the broader events industry in one important way: it asks not just how much money moves, but what that money is actually producing.
A music festival, a municipal arts week, a corporate summit, and a UN convening are all gatherings. Each generates economic activity. Very few are ever evaluated on whether that activity was worth generating in the first place.
Gathering economics is the discipline that closes that gap.
"Canada's festival sector recovered its attendance numbers by 2023. It has not yet recovered the quality of its sponsorship relationships."
— Resolute & Gather, field observation, 2026. Based on interviews with ten mid-tier Canadian festival sponsors conducted Q1 2026 as part of the Worth Showing Up research programme.
Statistics are composite estimates drawn from public economic reports, industry association data, and Resolute & Gather primary interviews. Where primary data is unavailable, figures represent calibrated estimates for illustrative purposes only.
Read the full research →Resolute & Gather is an independent practice.
No sponsorship agency to protect. No festival body to defend. We work with sponsors, municipalities, and organizers who want to know what their gathering is actually worth — and how to make it worth more.
Based in Ontario. Work nationally.